Article published Aug 10, 2010
Mail boxes are slowly disappearing
By MICHAEL P. MAYKO. Connecticut Post
Slowly they are going the way of public pay phones, the Main
Street cigar store and vinyl records.
And soon another piece of Americana — the royal blue U.S. Postal Service
collection box first appearing on our nation’s streets in 1850 — may
be gone.
Chalk it up to technology, says Henry Schissler, an associate professor of sociology
at Housatonic Community College.
Or the increasing costs of both cards and stamps, says Edward Deak, an economics
professor at Fairfield University.
Or another of the Postal Service’s lifeline strategies, like reducing hours,
cutting jobs and raising rates, to save a business sinking in debt.
Last week, the U.S. Postal Service reported $3.5 billion in operating loses for
the third quarter ending June 30. Don’t be surprised, the Postal Service
says, if it ends the fiscal year $7 billion in the red.
They attribute it to the costs of funding retirees’ benefits, worker compensation
claims and most importantly, a continuing drop in mail volume.
“What they really need to do is figure out how to be more productive,” said
Deak. “That could mean shrinking themselves by reducing not only the number
of employees, but the days and times it delivers. Eliminating Saturday deliveries
is a real possibility.”
One thing they’ve already done is ask the Postal Regulatory Commission
to increase by two cents the cost of first class mail and postcards, bringing
those to 46 and 28 cents respectively on Jan. 2. Increased rates for mailing
parcels and periodicals also are sought. A decision is expected in October.
Meanwhile, the 213 billion pieces of mail the U.S. Postal Service handled in
2006 dropped to 177 billion last year.
And the 345,000 collection boxes standing on the nation’s streets in 2005
just waiting for you to pull down the drawer and drop your letters inside?
That number has been whittled in half.
By example, Bridgeport, Conn., lost 51 as of early this year.
Soon the corner box, once attached to utility poles and checked every hour, may
go the route of those long-gone huge olive green relay boxes where mail was placed
for the letter carrier’s route.
Relay boxes began disappearing in the 1970s and 1980s when the Postal Service
determined it was more economical and more mail could be stored in vehicles.
What they didn’t determine is that gas for those vehicles would reach nearly
$3 a gallon in the new millennium.
“This is not unique to greater Bridgeport or even Connecticut,” said
Maureen Marion, a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson, when asked about disappearing
collection boxes. “It’s a national movement and part of it has a
lot to do with how people use stamped mail.”
Stamped mail, remember that?
Bills once sent by mail are often paid these days, without a check or a stamp,
online. Cards, once handwritten and sent to arrive on a birthday or holiday,
have given way to singing E-cards transmitted electronically by computer over
the Internet. Organizations no longer pay 28 cents for a postcard to send out
meeting notices. Instead they are sent free via e-mail.
In classes he teaches at Housatonic Community College, Schissler intertwines
daily with the 20-something year olds who make up what he calls “the paperless
Generation Y.”
He watches them organize, categorize and determine their daily schedules and
lives on their computers, cell phones and handheld wireless gaming systems — all
thanks to the Internet.
“Nice things like mailing someone a greeting card or a letter is a bizarre
happening to them,” he said. “I don’t think these kids have
stepped into a post office in years.”
Business buys into that, the professor said.
“You must get the letters from companies urging you to go green and switch
your bills, statements or notices to e-mail,” Schissler said.
“I’m not so sure I buy the claim that they are as concerned about
the environment as they are about saving a fortune on mailing costs.”
But Marion said it’s not just Generation Y that is causing the corner collection
box to disappear, it’s the demands of society.
People who once walked to the corner to mail their letters are now leaving them
in their home mailbox or at the mail tray at work for the letter carrier to collect.
Others wait until they go shopping, to drop a letter in the box outside their
supermarket.
Marion said the test for keeping a collection box in its current location is
that an average of 25 pieces of mail, which represents a letter carrier’s
handful, be deposited inside every day.
If that doesn’t happen over a month-long period, the box is ticketed for
change.
So boxes are moved to places like strip malls, schools and new developments where
foot traffic might be heavier. Some are placed outside a post office reducing
unnecessary foot traffic. Still others are brought inside and kept as replacement
boxes for those battered by weather, vandals and age.
“It’s a reflection of a strategic use of our resources,” Marion
said.
With the growing deficit, decreasing use and increasing cost, is the future dimming
for the U.S. Postal Service?
Both Marion and Deak say no.
“We don’t expect young people to increase their letter-writing habits,
but we are looking at new developments,” she said.
One simple thing she said is selling pre-stamped greeting cards.
One that Deak suggests is zone pricing first-class mail like the Postal Service
already does for packages. This means the farther you send a letter the more
it will cost.
“Right now I could send a letter to Fargo, N.D. for the same price it costs
me to send one to my next door neighbor,” he said.
But whatever the future holds, Deak said he has “absolutely no doubt that
the U.S. Postal Service will exist 50 years from now. Sending something by FedEx
or UPS is more expensive.”
Marion agrees.
“There’s always going to be a Postal Service,” the company
spokesperson said. “I don’t believe private courier services will
be able to meet the needs of society.”
Anson C. Smith, Public Relations Coordinator
Housatonic Community College
900 Lafayette Blvd.
Bridgeport, CT 06604
Tel: 203-332-5229, Fax: 203-332-5247
E-mail: asmith@hcc.commnet.edu